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ABOUT US
OUR STORY
On the dreadful night of March 6th, a woman in Atakum Samsun was filmed being violently beaten unconscious by her husband. Even more dreadful, her 5-year-old daughter was present to witness this. She not only saw her mom’s head kicked in, but she also saw the example from her mother & father of what men may do and what women are often forced to tolerate.
As this video went viral in Turkey, social media exploded with reposts of support for violence against women from public figures, influencers, and general civilians. Some even went further to publicly speak about how heavy this issue is, but few dedicated themselves to being the change we seek.
Samsunspor has a big responsibility to the city of Samsun, this is why the daughter of the club’s President, Yuksel YILDIRIM, asked her father if Samsun could do more, to lead with change.
“Dad, can we please have our third jersey purple to honor this cause? Being amongst the most influential organizations of the city, and because this viral attack happened here on our turf, we have a moral responsibility to do more than others, we must lead for a change.”, she said. Then his son, Jasper Sinan Yıldırım, said, “Tomorrow is International Women’s Day, this would be a great time to give this gift to women”.
Already being an activist towards the cause and a philanthropist running the corporate foundation of YILDIRIM Group, who owns Samsunspor, Zeycan Rochelle YILDIRIM found it really important to do something with this cause within sports. She went viral in July 2020 for explaining the meaning behind the #ChallengeAccepted trend which began its viral rounds in Turkey for women supporting women against gender-based violence. She was the one to explain the origin of 2020’s most viral social media trend and how monumental and damaging this issue is globally, which led to support from millions more globally reaching the world’s biggest stars and broadcasting platforms where she gave interviews. As this led her to become known internationally for Femicide, she wanted to do more within her power for change.